M-kopa

M-Kopa ( M for mobile, kopa is Swahili for borrowed) is a Kenyan solar energy company That Was founded in 2011 by Nick Hughes, Chad Larson and Jesse Moore. [1] [2] [3] Headquartered in Nairobi , the company sells home solar systems in Kenya , Tanzania , and Uganda . [4] Hughes previously set up and ran M-Pesa at Vodafone , a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinance service. [5]

M-Kopa was launched commercially in 2012 and has over 300,000 homes in East Africa to solar power , as of early January 2016. [6]

Off-the-grid household customers pay a fee to take the solar system home, then pay a daily amount through M-Pesa for a year, [7] after which they own it. In addition to getting solar power, customers are slowly off-set the cost of the device. [8]

How it works

Customers pay a deposit of 3,500 KES (approx $ 35), take the system home then pay 50 KES (approx $ 0.50) a day for a period of one year, [7] to own the solar system . Daily payments are made through M-Pesa , a mobile phone based money system, and in addition to getting solar power, customers also slowly off-set the cost of the device. [8] The system is meant for an off-grid household that is using kerosene (paraffin) to their home, and paying for batteries and mobile phone charging.

The latest M-Kopa 4, has an eight watt solar panel that charges cell phones, has a radio and a torch, via USB , includes 2 LED bulbs with light switches, and a rechargeable LED torch (flashlight) and a radio . [10]

The M-Kopa Solar Company

The company was founded in 2011 by Nick Hughes, Chad Larson, and Jesse Moore. [1] Hughes previously set up and ran M-Pesa at Vodafone where Moore also worked during completing his MBA . [5] Larson and Moore were fellow MBA students at Oxford University . [2] [3]

M-Kopa is backed by investors such as Richard Branson , Generation Investment Management , Blue Haven Initiative and LGT Venture Philanthropy, an investment vehicle of the Princely Family of Lichtenstein . [11] [12]

The company’s initial goal was to sell 1,000 units within a 12-month period. [13]

M-Kopa was launched commercially in 2012 and has connected over 300,000 homes in East Africa to solar power, as of early January 2016 [6] and has over $ 40 million of revenue to date. [14] [15] M-Kopa estimates that 80 percent of its customers live on $ 2 a day. [16]

Bloomberg Businessweek identified M-Kopa as “the solar company making a profit off of poor Africans.” [17] In February 2015, M-Kopa announced a plan to blacklist defaulters on its loans with credit bureaus . [18]

A similar named company in Kenya, MKOPA Investments, has disputed M-Kopa’s use of the name and has applied for M-Kopa cease and desist. [19]

Awards

M-kopa has received recognition from various institutions including the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Award 2014, [20] the Zayed Future Energy Award 2015, [21] and two awards from the Financial Times for Technology in Sustainable Finance and Excellence in Sustainable Finance , both in 2013. [ citation needed ]